Romulan Star Empire
From Star Trek: Theurgy Wiki
The Romulan Star Empire (or simply Romulan Empire) was a major interstellar state encompassing the Romulan people and their subject worlds and species. The Empire was known for its xenophobic character and policies of extreme secrecy, subterfuge, and territorial expansionism. By the late 23rd century, the Empire counted among the great powers in its region of the Milky Way Galaxy.
History
The Romulans originated from dissident Vulcans who rejected Surak's philosophy of peace, during the Time of Awakening and emigrated from their homeworld around the 4th century. They settled on the planets Romulus and Remus, subjugating the native Remans in the process. The development of warp drive enabled the Romulans to expand their state into a Star Empire.
In 2152, the Romulans came into contact with the Human starship Enterprise. Relations between the Empire and United Earth deteriorated as the Enterprise crew thwarted a Romulan plot to subvert the Vulcan High Command. Recognizing the growing threat posed by Earth, the Romulans attempted to incite war in the region by attacking civilian shipping using disguised drones. The effort, however, backfired, as their involvement was exposed by Enterprise and spurred the formation of an alliance between the Humans, Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites, the nucleus of what would become the United Federation of Planets.
Open war erupted between Earth and the Romulans in 2156, ending four years later with a humiliating Romulan defeat at the Battle of Cheron. An ensuing peace treaty established the Romulan Neutral Zone, after which the Romulans had no substantial contact with Humans for a century. In 2266, the Romulans tested Federation resolve by sending a Bird-of-Prey to attack Federation outposts along the Neutral Zone. The defeat of the Bird-of-Prey by the USS Enterprise averted war. During this period, the Romulans experienced a short-lived break in their enmity with the Klingons, resulting in a technological exchange between the two.
The Romulans viewed the 2293 Khitomer Accords between the Federation and the Klingon Empire unfavorably, as it shifted the balance of power against them. Escalating hostilities between the Star Empire and the Federation culminated in the Tomed Incident of 2311 and the Treaty of Algeron. The Romulans again ceased meaningful contact with the Federation, though they continued to war intermittently with the Klingons. In 2364, the Empire began to engage once more with the Federation, following a series of mysterious attacks on their Neutral Zone outposts.
For the latter part of the 2360s, the Romulans were locked in a cold war with the Federation, launching repeated probes of Federation space and subversive actions. Most significantly, they attempted to break the Federation-Klingon alliance, resulting in the Klingon Civil War, and to exploit the Vulcan reunification movement to invade Vulcan. Both plans were unsuccessful. The Empire's position shifted when violent contact with the Dominion in 2370 presented a common threat to all Alpha Quadrant powers. The Romulans collaborated with Starfleet in a limited fashion to counter the Dominion threat, though ultimately they opted to sign a nonaggression pact with the Dominion in late 2373.
In mid-2374, the Romulans were brought into the Dominion War on the Allied side through an act of subterfuge by Benjamin Sisko and Elim Garak. Romulan participation marked a turning point in the war and was critical to the defeat of the Dominion, the following year. In the war's aftermath, Shinzon seized control of the Empire and attempted to launch a genocidal attack on Earth, only to be stopped by the USS Enterprise-E. It was hoped, by members of both sides, that a lasting peace between the Romulans and the Federation would follow. In 2387, the Empire suffered a major setback when the supernova of a nearby star destroyed Romulus.
Territory
The Romulan Star Empire had borders with the United Federation of Planets, the Klingon Empire, and the Cardassian Union. The Federation-Romulan border was defined by a fixed border known as the Romulan Neutral Zone. There was also a distant Romulan border near the outer edges of the Alpha Quadrant, in a region of space where Federation starships operated on deep space missions in the 2370s.
As an expansionist power, the Romulan Star Empire claimed vast tracts of space that were outside its effective authority, for example Sector 25434. These claims were not recognized by other governments. Romulans seldom gave up territory once they had seized it. In the mid-22nd century, the Romulans used cloaked mines to assert new territorial claims. The Romulans believed their destiny to be the domination of the entire Milky Way Galaxy.
Government
The ruling body of the Romulan Star Empire was the Romulan Senate, with each senator representing a province. The Senate was led by the Praetor, followed by the Proconsul and then the Vice-proconsul. The Praetor also presided over the Continuing Committee, a powerful body that held authority over Senate members. Changes of government and attendant shifts in policy were not uncommon in the Empire. In 2373, Q contemplated producing a child with the Romulan empress.
The Romulan Senate dispatched ambassadors from time to time, for example Caithlin Dar to Nimbus III and Nanclus to the United Federation of Planets.
Foreign Relations & Military
In external application, Romulan political agendas appeared largely unified over the centuries. Their goals focused on maintaining Imperial security through vigilance, and negating the perceived advantages of their rivals. Both goals were accompanied by a near-paranoid reticence to reveal information, even facts as basic as their racial identity, that might illuminate other Romulan ambitions or motivations.
The Romulan military was a powerful and technologically advanced force encompassing both spacefaring and ground forces. Despite being defeated by Earth in the Earth-Romulan War of the 2150s, the Romulan Star Empire continued to be a powerful presence, not afraid to tempt Starfleet by entering the Neutral Zone. Romulan forces were a deciding factor in the Dominion War, whose entry in 2374 turned the tide of war in favor of the Allies.
Romulan military operations were supported by the War Plans Council, a high-level government agency.
Besides regular forces, the Romulan Tal Shiar also had its own fleet of starships, and were a ruthless and powerful organization within the Empire and beyond.
Romulan Technology
Romulan technology was often cited as one of the reasons why the Romulan Star Empire was regarded as such a dangerous foe in times of war. The Romulan Ministry of Science oversaw the scientific research of the Romulan Star Empire. The Romulan Astrophysical Academy was a division within the Romulan science community. The Romulans were known to have developed a multitude of different technologies that are either the first of their kind or unique to the Romulan Star Empire.
Cloaking Technology
The Romulans were the first known race to develop the cloaking device stealth technology, first observed on Romulan mines and the Romulan Bird-of-Prey in 2152.
The Romulans and the Federation long engaged in a tech war of cloak and cloak detection. In 2152, a quantum beacon proved an effective counter measure for detecting less advanced cloaks such as those found on Romulan mines, but not those on early Romulan Birds-of-Prey. In 2368, the Federation developed the tachyon detection grid, a technique that allowed for the detection of Romulan vessels of the day. (TNG: "Redemption II")
By 2379, the Star Empire had perfected the cloaking technology. The cloak of the Reman Warbird Scimitar produced no tachyon emissions and left no residual antiproton traces for detection. The Scimitar was the only vessel in the Star Empire known to have overcome the long standing problem of not being able to raise shields or fire weapons when the cloaking device was active. The only known way to counter these latest cloaks involved the use of telepathic races such as Betazoids to detect an enemy crew by sensing their thoughts.
Disruptors
Romulan energy weapons were described by Spock in 2266 as being superior to those of the Federation. The Romulans were one of three races, along with the Klingons and the Breen, who were known to use the type 3 disruptor. When fired, a Romulan disruptor left behind residual antiproton particles that remained for several hours.
Plasma Torpedoes
First known to have been used by the Romulans in 2266, plasma torpedoes were an extremely powerful but an energy-intensive weapon system. This type of high-energy plasma weapon was first encountered by Starfleet when a Romulan Bird-of-Prey destroyed several Federation outposts near the Romulan Neutral Zone.
Upon detonation, the torpedo unleashed an overpowering energy plasma that caused an implosion in the target. Even rodinium, the hardest material known to the Federation, could not withstand this kind of attack. A single torpedo was capable of catastrophic damage and its destructive potential against fortified targets was unmatched.
The torpedo was capable of going into warp, but the effective damage output decreased the longer it was in flight. If the torpedo had a flaw--it was limited by range, such as when the Bird-of-Prey fired on the USS Enterprise, the Starfleet vessel was able to maneuver out of its most effective range, so that when it did hit them, its effectiveness had dissipated and the damage to the Enterprise was fairly minor.
The only other races to have used plasma torpedoes are the Kazon and the Cardassians, but the first documented usage of plasma torpedoes by these races occurred more than a century after the Romulans, in the early 2370s.
Shields
Standard Romulan deflector shields were believed to be at least on par with those of the Federation. However, the most advanced example of shield technology in the Romulan Star Empire was present on the Scimitar, which was equipped with both primary and secondary shields. The ship endured at least thirty-two phaser hits, twenty disruptor strikes, and twenty torpedo impacts in a single engagement at the Battle of the Bassen Rift, exhausting the weapons complement of the Enterprise-E, and was still able to maintain 70% shield strength.
Self-Repair Technology
The Romulans were known to be able to equip their ships with a self-repair technology, principally used on the Romulan drone ship in 2154.
Quantum Singularity Propulsion
In the 24th century, an artificial quantum singularity served as the primary power source for large Romulan spacecraft, such as the D'deridex-class Warbird. Once activated, the singularity core could not be shut down.
